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Dessert

Franklin Buns

A sweet roll made with butter, sugar, flour, cream, eggs, rose water, wine, nutmeg, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Franklin Buns

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the butter and sugar until light.

  2. Gradually stir in the cream with half the flour.

  3. Whisk the eggs until thick.

  4. Add the eggs with the remaining flour, half at a time, and beat well.

  5. Add the other ingredients and beat all together.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter a square pan.

  2. Pour the mixture into the pan.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C).

  4. When done, sift white sugar on top.

  5. Cut into squares.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and tenderness, and helps the batter cream with the sugar.
Eggs
Provide structure and lift when whisked and beaten into the batter.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the buns together as they bake.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the batter.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven so the buns rise and turn light.

The step that matters

Beat the eggs in half at a time. Adding eggs gradually lets each portion emulsify into the butter and cream, keeping the batter smooth. Dumping them in at once can cause curdling, which hurts the final texture.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, cream, egg, rose, wine):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits less well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, cream, egg, rose, wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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